Jimmy Buffett show broadcast across the country

Sitting in a pickup truck decked out in colorful pinwheels, sporting leis, with a cooler full of seafood, Jimmy Buffett superfans Jan and Mike Golan felt like they were in paradise Thursday night.

By HAVEN ORECCHIO-EGRESITZ

capecodtimes.com

By HAVEN ORECCHIO-EGRESITZ

Posted Jun. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM
Updated Jun 20, 2014 at 12:08 PM

By HAVEN ORECCHIO-EGRESITZ

Posted Jun. 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM
Updated Jun 20, 2014 at 12:08 PM

» Social News

Sitting in a pickup truck decked out in colorful pinwheels, sporting leis, with a cooler full of seafood, Jimmy Buffett superfans Jan and Mike Golan felt like they were in paradise Thursday night.

"We've been doing this since the '70s. We even flew out to California for the millennium concert," Mike Golan said. "This is cool."

The Eastham couple was part of a festive flock of several hundred parrotheads from Cape Cod and beyond who gathered at the Wellfleet Drive-In to enjoy a live streaming of a Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band concert.

While the couple might have been going to Buffett concerts all over the country for more than 30 years, they've never done it like this.

On Thursday, Buffett performed at the Coyote Drive-In in Fort Worth, Texas, nearly 2,000 miles away from Wellfleet, but his concert was streamed at 87 drive-ins nationwide in the first ever broadcast of its type.

John Vincent, who owns the Wellfleet Drive-In, said he expects the Buffet concert to be a kickoff to a new trend of drive-in concerts streamed nationwide.

"We're always looking to keep drive-ins relevant," he said before the concert. "It wasn't possible with film."

The Wellfleet Drive-In made the conversion from film to digital projection of film in May of 2013, he said.

The party began more than three hours before Buffett appeared on the big screen when hard-core fans began staking out the parking lot and taking part in an island celebration.

A game of cornhole was set up in front of an RV. Women in grass skirts sipped on summer brews. A "Welcome to Paradise" sign hung on the side of an SUV, and one woman lounged in a lawn chair next to it and dipped her feet in an inflatable pool while a plastic sailboat bath toy floated around them.

Another woman chowed down on a burger from the snackbar.

"I'm eating a cheeseburger in paradise, and it's delicious," Laurie Jalbert, of Harwich, said, referencing one of Buffett's most popular songs.

On the other side of the parking lot, Steven Holshouser, of Charleston, South Carolina, threw a Frisbee to a stranger.

He planned on coming to Cape Cod to visit family in Osterville, but he scheduled it around Thursday's concert.

Although Holshouser has been to several live Jimmy Buffett concerts, he said that the drive-in broadcast could be an interesting way for fans to see Buffett without traveling long distances.

"The drive-in is just as good as the regular shows," he said. "You would never be able to get this close anyway. The funnest part is the tailgating."

After hours of celebrating, just before 10 p.m., Jimmy Buffett finally appeared on screen in a salmon-colored Margaritaville shirt singing a cover of Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl."

While the attendees at the live concert Texas were going wild, cheering and dancing, the party in Wellfleet had simmered down to near silence and just listened.